


Locked Out of Eden

by Leftmyheartinthetardis



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Peter Pan (1953), Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy - J. M. Barrie
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Epilogue, F/F, Gen, Magic, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-02 08:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17261183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leftmyheartinthetardis/pseuds/Leftmyheartinthetardis
Summary: Whatever happened to the Lost Girl?Or the once so gentle Queen?What happened once stuck in one world, so empty or so mean?All those that magic had planted a seed inWhatever happened to those locked out of Eden?----------------------------------------------------------------Susan Pevensie isn't creative.  So, when her creative writing class is working on the major story project, she writes about her past.  It's not like anyone would think it ever really happened.Wendy Darling wants to share her story, even though it is nothing anyone would ever believe to be true.  So she writes about her past.  People know she's a good storyteller after all.





	1. Chapter 1

Susan supposed that in some ways, deep down, she hated Aslan. Not all of her despised him, but the part was there none the less. She despised Narnia and the wardrobe and the magic and the entire land that she had grown to love so dearly and rule so kindly as too be given the name Queen Susan the Gentle. Ruler of the golden age of Narnia alongside her brothers and sister.

Until she wasn’t.

Until she was a girl, sitting on the ground outside a wardrobe in a big house in the countryside of a war-ravaged world.

The initial transition back to life in England had been hard enough. Here she was no longer a queen, but someone to be looked after as she was forced to grow up again. Still, she still always had hope, even if she never said it. Hope she could return to Narnia and her friends and the life she had come to love. No more school, no more petty arguments about how she should or shouldn’t dress, nor fights with friends over gossip and boys.

_Ug_ , she would think to herself, _it always comes back to boys_.

_“Oh, Susan, any man would be lucky to have a wife like you!”_

And, “ _No time to waste, my dear, your clock is ticking!!”_

She didn’t have that in Narnia, and she didn’t need that in Narnia. But here she did. The makeup and the clothes and the parties and the gossip. Her clock was ticking, and heaven forbid it run out before she could find a respectable man to build a family with. But even after returning to Narnia the life she once had was lost. Time had moved on there, as it always does--very differently than at home, so they did what they could before her journey with Narnia ended.

And it was Aslan himself who had made that quite clear.

 

So, she did what she must. Carry on in the world, continue her studies, and become who the world wanted to become- a beautiful young woman, respected and fawned over, a true society lady. And because respectable young women do not speak of being queens and warriors in a magic land found inside a wardrobe, she did not speak of their adventures at all, to the point where even her sister Lucy came to think that she no long believed in Narnia and their adventures there. She allowed herself to be molded and formed, not into who she was but what the world believed she needed to become.

At times she regretted this. Late and lonely nights where she was alone in her flat with nothing but her memories to keep her company.  But even if now she wanted to talk to her younger sister or her brothers about it she knew that was impossible.

The other Pevensie children were dead.

It was a train crash. Brutal and violent and merciless, leaving Queen Susan the Gentle, Daughter of Eve and High Queen of Narnia, utterly alone. And that, she came to realize, is why the part of her, the part she didn’t like to talk about or pay any notice to, was there- the part that despised Aslan and Narnia and the magical land she had once called home.

It had been Aslan, or whoever he was in her world, that had taken them from her.

One of these lonely nights which eventually grew into a lonely day drove her out of her flat and to the local coffee house. She needed to stop isolating herself, her therapist had said. It’s amazing how, even living in an apartment with 3 other students, she could isolate herself for days.  Besides, it wasn’t as if she was living with close friends.  She didn’t really have any of those here.  They more existed within the same space, only rarely interacting with each other on account of their vastly different schedules. So the coffee house, that would work. She could sit alone with her work and still be around people. A compromise.

Susan left her flat for the short walk to coffee shop.  Fall was in full effect as a slight breeze rippled through her hair.  The door chimed as she entered the shop and selected a small round table in the corner.  Sighing softly, she sat down and opened her computer.

  _Shit_. 

There was an unread email from her creative writing professor. They were supposed to pick a partner to peer review the fantasy stories they had been working on. Or, in Susan’s case, should have been working on. She had written nothing. Clicking the link to the document containing the partner list she realized there was only a single student left who still needed a partner.

_Darling, W._

Susan didn’t recognize the name, which was by design. She tried as much as possible to not interact with the other students in her classes, and was very good at it. She typed her name next in the blank space and opened an email to _Darling, W._

 

 

Hello,

 My name is Susan and I am one of the students your creative writing class, and it appears we are partners for the fantasy story review. Is there a time you would like to meet? I am free all today and will most likely be at the Copper Cup Coffee Shoppe until about 6, if that works at all for you.

Thank you,

 Susan Pevensie

 

 

She sent the email and the reply was almost instantaneous.

 

Hello Susan!

Today would be great! Is around 1:30 okay?

 -Wendy Darling

 

Susan replied, saying that 1:30 would be perfect. The only problem was she didn’t have a story to review. She looked long and hard at the blank document open in front of her.  Creative writing had never been her strength.  The only reason she took the class was that she needed a credit.   Still, she had a thought of what she could do, but the idea of committing everything to paper let alone allowing others to read it scared her.  But it was a fairly unbelievable story.  Names could be changed, and her therapist had been encouraging her to write more about her past.  Plus, over an hour had passed without any new ideas, and she was desperate.   She wasn’t very imaginative, and much preferred to write about real life scenarios, so that’s what she did. It wasn’t her fault if everyone thought it was fiction.  

 

_Once, not so long ago, there were four siblings…._

* * *

 

Wendy Darling walked into Copper Cup Coffee Shoppe at 1:25, prepared to meet with this Susan Pevensie girl. She had her laptop, a printed out copy of her story, and half a dozen different coloured pens. Surveying the restaurant, Wendy searched for the girl who’s profile picture she had seen.  _That was the nice thing about the internet_ , she thought, _you can always find who you’re looking for._

 

She spotted her sitting in the corner, papers spread around her and typing furiously on a laptop. Long dark brown hair with a slight wave, soft red lips, a few freckles…just like her profile picture. Her hair was styled in a strange way, as if she were a girl in the ’40s, Wendy noticed. It made her look more mature, almost matronly. It was a striking contrast to Wendy’s own short, honey coloured hair, always slightly messy and almost never “done.” She put a bow in it on occasion, but that was rare. She made her way over to the table and introduced herself.

“Susan Pevensie? Hi! I’m Wendy. Wendy Darling.”

“Oh,” Susan looked up from her computer, “Hi.”

Wendy pulled up a chair, sat down, and began talking

“Okay, so I brought a hard copy of my story but also a digital one, so whatever you prefer is alright with me. Also, I have coloured pens if you need something different to write in. Do you want a little preview of my story or to just dive right into it?”

“Um,” Susan began processing Wendy’s rapid-fire speech, “Uh, it’s okay. I’ll just start with the story. And mine…isn’t quite a story yet. It’s more of a detailed outline…and it's only on my computer. Sorry.”

“It’s okay! Not a problem, I get it.  I personally try to avoid homework at all costs, this was probably the only exception. I actually had something to write about!”

“Yeah, same here,” Susan said absently, “Ready to switch?”

 Wendy nodded enthusiastically. Wow, Susan thought. This girl was ready to go. She couldn’t help but watch her for a minute as her blue eyes looked over the computer screen, like a little kid with a brand new book. At least someone was enjoying this project.

Susan began to read through Wendy’s story. She had written a _lot._ She was slowly captivated by Wendy’s words. It was a story about three siblings who meet a mysterious boy that flies them to a magical new land, an island where they would never grow up. There were fairies and pirates and mermaids and everything a kid could want. Except, it was revealed, a mother and the chance to grow up. So, ultimately, after fights with pirates and malicious mermaids the three siblings left, back to the real world.

Susan was mesmerized by the story. The descriptions of the scenery and the people were so vivid and detailed it felt like a real place. And on top of that, it felt…magical. And not in the children’s storybook sense one would expect to find in a fantasy book. No, this was magic in a way she hadn’t felt since, well, since Narnia. But the story was also sad. Sure, the kids got to go on a magical adventure to a faraway land, but then they just… left. Back to the real world, back to growing up and to eventually become adults. The story didn’t say what happened to them next, once the kids returned from the magical land and all the years after.  They reminded her of herself, and that was the saddest part of all. 

Wendy called the story _Neverland._

It was weird, the way it resonated with her. She supposed it was, well, because she was one of those kids. And once she had returned back to the “real world,” it was never a happy ending. Nope. Just like her those kids would have to grow up, go to school, and become what people wanted them to be. The would have to experience death and loss and eventually face the reality that they were alone in this experience. Yeah, she thought, that was the saddest part of all.

Susan pulled herself back to reality and looked up from her paper. She was surprised to see Wendy still deep in concentration and starring at the laptop screen. Somewhere, back behind the counter, there was a clatter and Wendy was shook out of her daze.

“Oh!” She said, sounding slightly startled, “Guess I got a bit distracted. Sorry. Do you want to go through them together now?”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Susan replied, a bit more life in her voice then there had been before they started reading.

“Awesome. Do you want to start or do you want me to?”

“You can, if you want.”

“Great! Just give me 20 seconds to get my notes in order.”

Wendy began to shuffle through her papers. She really had like the story. Or at least, what would eventually become a story. It was more of a timeline at the moment. A very specific, detailed timeline, but still not a coherent story. It was almost as if she were recalling an event, or mapping out a memory. As far as stories go, it had potential. It was also strikingly similar to hers. A group of siblings finds themselves in a magical land where time worked differently, and they proceed to have amazing adventures full of magic and general wonders. But the most similar part, the part that really gave Wendy chills, was the end.  And what a familiar ending it was.

It was thinking about the end that distracted her, pulled her back into perfectly preserved yet deeply hidden memories of her time with Peter Pan. She missed him, sometimes, when she found herself looking up at the stars or reading to kids at the library where she worked. Sometimes hated him sometimes as well, when at night she would have nightmares full of mermaids who would claw at her hair and clothes in an attempt to drown her and evil pirates hell-bent on revenge.  But mostly when those memories came back, happy or not, she hated herself.

No one had made her leave Neverland and all its magic behind. Instead, she had made that choice herself. She thought she was so ready to grow up and move past all those childish things, and she knew she could never do that in Neverland. So she left and said good-bye to Tinkerbell and Peter and the lost boys and the magic. She couldn’t ever go back, she knew, even though as time dragged on she wanted to. She missed the magic and the beach and the friends and simply just being a kid. Now she had her university studies and other awful things to worry about. She had tried to talk to her brothers about it at times when she missed Neverland the most, but that never helped. Michael had been too young to properly remember it and John…he just aggravated her. At some point, he had just decided to quit. Neverland was never more than a made-up game they had played in the nursery, and that’s that.  So it was just her and her memories now, all dragged up by the ending of Susan’s story which was far too similar to the ending of hers.

 

Wendy stopped rearranging her papers and looked up.

“Well, best start at the beginning, shall we?”


	2. Chapter 2

“…and honestly, Susan, you have the start of a really interesting story here. And the middle, and the end. You just have to commit and put it all together, weave together the outline as it were. There doesn’t even really seem to be any lose ends, to be honest. Everything is very detailed and thought through. But, I do have one question- your story seems to follow the older sister…Lily. Why not follow the younger one, Lucy, the one who actually discovered Narnia?”

“Well,” Susan began, “I guess I relate to Lily more and understand what she’s thinking more than Lucy or their brothers. Narratively, I don’t know how much sense it makes, but I know how Lily felt, I guess.”

“Narratively it is a bit strange, yes, but…I like it,” said Wendy, a small smile briefly crossing her face. “Like, Lily’s actions make sense to me, I guess. Some people might look at it like ‘why isn’t she thrilled about this?’ or even think she is stuck up, but there’s so much more to it than that.”  
“Lily is responsible. She wants to care for her siblings and ensure everyone is on the right path, and because of that they don’t see eye to eye until eventually, they all find this right path together and everything is great…”

“Why do I sense a “but” coming?”

“But then they don’t listen to her and together they leave everything behind because they were again all following Lucy. It just makes me think…what would have happened if they hadn’t followed Lucy in the first place? What if Lily had put her foot down the second time they saw that lamp post? But she wouldn’t have, would she? She just wanted the best for everyone but wouldn’t risk them losing each other to get it.”

Susan looked at her for a long moment, replaying what Wendy had said over in her mind. 

“Sorry if I’m reading too far into this, I guess I just…relate to Lily in an odd way that I don’t even fully understand. The whole notion of leaving that whole world behind, and even venturing there in the first place, just to keep a family together.”

As Wendy talked, Susan’s vision started spinning. 

“No, don’t worry, you’re fine. It’s actually really interesting, listening to someone who understands.”

Her vision became blurry.

“Understands?”

And the café far too loud.

“Lily. Understands Lily, and what it must have been like for her and everything. Yeah. Um… ready to move on to yours?”

And the world far too distant

“Ready when you are!”

Susan shuffled some papers around, looking for words to begin her critique. Focus, she told herself, you are here and now, editing a paper in a coffee shop.   
The table has a heavy wooden grain.  
There are people talking.   
You can smell coffee.   
You are here.  
Wendy looked at Susan as she searched through her papers. She seemed to be shaking slightly and silently talking to herself. Abruptly, Susan stopped what she was doing and stood up.

“I’m just gonna run to the restroom quick before starting, okay?”  
“Yeah, no problem,” Wendy replied, unable to tell whether everything was okay, “You all good?”   
“Yep. Just need a moment.”

Susan entered the bathroom and shut the stall door, bracing her hands on either wall. She felt like she was going to vomit, but refused to as hot tears leaked from her shut eyes and down her cheeks. Breath in, 1-2-3-4-, breath out, 1-2-3-4-. Breath in, 1-2-3-4-, breath out, 1-2-3-4-. Just keep breathing.   
There was just something in the way Wendy had read Lily as if she had seen right through her and…and into Susan. She felt examined and exposed, completely naked and raw. And guilty. Oh, so, so guilty. She should have never let them enter the damn wardrobe in the first place, and even after that, she should have never let them leave. If she had her family would still be alive and she would still be a queen and if she wasn’t a queen, if they hadn’t even gone in at all, this would have never happened. She wouldn’t have to remember two different lives of wake up knowing every day that she was completely and utterly alone.   
Hell, this was a bad idea, she thought. Susan stood up, took a deep breath, and opened the stall door. Looking in the mirror she straightened her shirt, dabbed her eyes, and returned to the table to go through Wendy’s paper. 

Wendy looked up from her phone as Susan sat down at the table.   
“All good?” She asked.  
“Yep. Now, let’s start…overall I think you have a really incredible story here. It’s incredibly detailed and the language has a certain… vibrant quality to it. Your characters are well developed for the most part, but I was a bit surprised by some of Jane’s choices later in the book. I mean, you have this girl with this amazing imagination and desire for adventure just decide that she needs to move on from that? And so she just…goes back home? Leads a normal life? It seems like she knows she can’t go back to Neverland and I just don’t get why she would leave so abruptly. I guess it just confuses me, and I want to know more.”  
“Some of the other things were just some structure stuff…”

Susan went on critiquing the story. She really did like it, even if she did feel bad for the main characters. She also understood Jane’s actions and choices more than she was willing to let on, but she didn’t know if others would, so she questioned her character development. A deeper part of her mind questioned it to because maybe, just maybe, she could change the story’s ending, and save then children from the return to the real world. 

“…But overall you have an amazing piece and I did really enjoy it!”  
“Thanks! And thanks for the feedback,” Wendy began.  
“There’s another “but” coming, isn’t there?”   
Wendy smiled and blushed slightly and looked down at her paper to hide it.  
“But…I’m not sure I quite understood your critique of Wen- Jane. When Jane made the decision to return home. I mean, I thought it was pretty clear that Jane was returning home to grow up because that’s what would have to happen eventually, and that she believed she saw value in doing so.”  
“I know, it just seems like it was a very quick decision, one she didn’t really think through, ya know? And because of that, it wasn’t in character or anything with the Jane we see in the rest of the story. In the end, it seems like it’s trying to convey a message about the need to grow up more than anything else.  
Wendy seemed slightly agitated and fidgety, bordering on the defensive. “Well, the need to grow up theme is pretty present throughout the story…like, it’s the reason she even ran away to Neverland. All that happens is she comes to believe, for better or for worse, that she was wrong and that, yeah, she does need to grow up. I mean, I would know, I made the choice.”

“What?” Susan asked, confused as to what choice exactly they were talking about.   
“I…I, uh, made the choice. For Jane. As the author, I am Jane. Like, metaphorically and stuff.”  
Susan smiled and gave Wendy a playful skeptic look.  
“Now, Wendy,” Susan began in a very professor-like voice, “Did you write a story about yourself? Did you make yourself the main character?”  
“Um…” Wendy felt her face grow hot. Crap. Crap, crap, crap, she thought. She thinks I think this really happened, doesn’t she? And even though it did, that doesn’t matter. She is going to think you are nuts. This very smart, very attractive, girl is going to think I have lost my mind.

Susan’s serious face broke with a laugh and a smile. “Do you honestly think I would care if this was a self-insert story? I mean, sure the professor doesn’t like the idea, but screw him.”

Wendy relaxed, her blood pressure dropping and tried to laugh along with Susan.  
“Yeah, yeah, I guess you could say I inserted myself. Yeah.”

“Well, no worries, your secret is safe with me.”

The girls parted ways and, try as she might, Wendy couldn’t stop replaying the day’s events in her mind. She had been an idiot. First with writing about Neverland and then with getting so defensive of Jane’s- no, of her own- decisions. But she stood by what she had said. At the time she did believe it was the best choice, leaving Neverland and growing up. Now, she resented that decision, but at the time it seemed right. Just like when Lily chose to follow her siblings into the wardrobe.

Wendy’s frustration grew as she walked home. So why did Susan even have to question her decision? Her story had basically the same idea…a choice was made because at the time it was right for the family. But apparently, that wasn’t okay in Jane’s life, oh no. Jane should have made the right decision, Jane should have stayed in Neverland. Jane should have….  
BANG!  
Wendy slammed her front door shut behind her and, leaning up against it, buried her face in her hands. Today was a day she was grateful to be living alone. Though years had passed, the regret of leaving Neverland behind never faded. All the memories were still there, as bright and beautiful as the day they happened. Some days she couldn’t escape them and some days she purposely never left them. Today would be a day where they wouldn’t leave her be, where the regret kept gnawing at her until her insides were raw. She really had only one way to escape it and that was to embrace it. Sighing, she entered the small spare room that had become her studio and got out her paints and blasted her music. 

By the time she was done she felt better. It just felt good to get the images out there, it made the whole ordeal seem so much more…real. The room really was full of pictures of everything she’d seen on her adventure. Today’s was of the mermaid lagoon, but instead of the normal crystalline water and clear sky, it was stormy with heavy clouds and rough water, all blue-grey.   
Just like those eyes, some small part of her brain whispered.  
“Oh, shut up,” Wendy said aloud back. 

Susan had confused Wendy in a way. She had looked so serious and focused, sitting there at her table. But, after she had read her story, she seemed…more lively? Almost like her coffee had kicked in, Wendy realized. And then she changed again after they talked about Lily. It was as if she had brought up something unpleasant or Susan had just had a bite of a soft grape. And after that she was fine again.   
I didn’t make sense, but that was okay. Sometimes things just don’t. All she really knew was that Susan’s story, the tale of Lily and her siblings and all their adventures, felt familiar. And, in an odd way, it felt like Neverland. It felt like home.

 

Once she was home Susan scrubbed off her makeup, changed into an old t-shirt, and climbed into bed. She was still shaken from the afternoon’s events in the coffee shop. It happened every so often where she became overwhelmed, stricken with regret or grief or panic, she would be pulled into herself so deeply that she could no longer breath. Panic attacks, dissociations. Symptoms of a life she had left behind and a family she no longer had. She hadn’t expected Wendy to read so deep into her writing or to question what would have happened if she had simply put her foot down. But she also understood why she didn’t, which was the most surprising of all. Wendy had even said she related to “Lily” in a way. It was a pleasant surprise. Or, it would have been had she not been swept away in the memories and sadness and dangers of her time in Narnia and the years after.   
She also felt a touch of guilt, she realized. She had pushed the whole Jane acting out of character thing too hard, even when she could tell Wendy was aggravated. I was just…ugh, it was stupid but she just felt so protective of those kids. The last thing she wanted was for them to… well, for them to wind up like her. Her thoughts and memories tumbled around in her head, rolling over each other and changing until she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pestering questions on a workshop day leave Wendy flustered, and as she searches for a distraction she learns more about her review partner's past.

The next week continued, as it always seemed to do, and Susan still couldn’t get the Neverland story out of her head. There was just something about it. And even more so, she came to realize, there was something about Wendy. Something different, something that Susan couldn’t quite grasp. And it came out in her storytelling.

 

The next time they met in class was workshop day. Their professor split the class into groups and assigned tasks designed to help the students better know their stories. It was an interesting exercise, Susan thought, although not really necessary in her case. It was actually pretty fun hearing what strange details people had crafted in their worlds or finding gigantic holes in their story. Susan was quiet for much of the discussion, as always, but she didn’t mind listening.

She had been slightly distracted from her groupmates when something someone else had said caught her attention. She looked over her shoulder and realized it was Wendy talking about _Neverland_. The two had barely interacted in class and didn’t really speak outside of class either aside from the peer editing meeting. In fact, Susan realized, the only time she really saw her was in their creative writing class. She looked pretty today, with her short hair pinned out of her face and wearing jeans with a simple blue sweater.

Her group mates were asking her questions and she seemed to be the one with all the answers.  Susan even heard some weird things, questions about the geography of the land and the weather and still- Wendy had all the answers. She had all the answers to the smallest details of Peter Pan’s hideout and Captain Hook’s ship, and yet…there was one question that stalled her.

“What happened to the kids after they returned from Neverland?” an underclassman boy named Jack asked.

Jack was a usually quiet boy, with light brown hair and red-rimmed glasses.  He was also American, doing a semester abroad.  It was strange for him to be asking so many questions.

“Oh, um, I suppose…I suppose I don’t really know. Um, I mean, it is just a story after all.”

“So they just moved back? Grew up? Do you think they remembered Neverland?”

“I, I don’t know. Really!” Wendy replied.  The group clearly wanted more, but she refused to continue. She had an answer to almost every question about it, and yet she said she didn’t know what happened to them after.  Or, like she was simply avoiding it.  As if they simply grew up, alone in their memories of their adventures together, and never able to return home.

 _Yeah_ , thought Susan, _I can imagine that._

 

At the end of class time, Susan caught Wendy to give her the second draft of her story. 

“Hey, Wendy,” Susan said approaching her from the other side of the room. “I have my next draft for you, and it’s an actual draft this time.”

“Oh, thanks,” Wendy replied. Something in Wendy’s tone of voice seemed off, Susan noted.  Not that she knew her well enough to really know what was normal and what was not. It just sounded slightly sad, maybe a dash anxious, like she was still being grilled about her story. Wendy took the paper from Susan and quickly left the room, her mind reeling from her classmates’ questions.

 

 _You don’t owe them answers_ , Wendy told herself. _They have no reason to think it was anything but that.  Or even writer's block._ _No reason to believe they returned to live in the real world only for Jane to grow up longing to return to Neverland and forever regretting the choice she made to leave, forever resenting the fact that she was eternally locked out of Eden._

                                                                                       

Back at home, Wendy began thinking over and (eventually, inevitably) overthinking the previous creative writing class.  Minute details stood out in her mind.  Jack’s red rimmed glasses, the sound of her classmate’s rustling paper, the curls by Susan’s face on the other side of the room.  The hyper-focusing annoyed her, so she searched for a distraction.  Often she would paint or draw when these sorts of moods hit her, but today she was lacking inspiration.  Deciding for once to get on top of her school work, Wendy picked up Susan’s story.

 

_Wunderkind_

Susan Pevensie

 

It was Susan’s most recent draft. She’d had it since the end of class to look over before next week. _Wunderkind,_ Wendy thought. A beautiful word. And _Susan Pevensie,_ a beautiful name.

The longer Wendy looked her name the more she realized she know almost nothing about Susan Pevensie.  She knew they were in the same creative writing class and that she rarely, if ever, spoke …. And that was about it.  That was all she knew about her.

 _Good_ , Wendy thought, pulling out her laptop to begin investigating her partner, _a distraction._

Susan had a Facebook account but posted almost nothing.  On her wall, the only things Wendy could see were an old photo she had been tagged in, and a picture of a lion’s face next to the words “Courage, Dear Heart.”  There were several twitters with the same name but, again, nothing. Wendy then typed the name into the search bar, doubtful that she would find anything. Three links down the page she saw her first lead: … _survived by Susan Pevensie,_ and clicked.

It was an obituary or… a news article? Wendy wasn’t sure, perhaps it was some of both.

****

**_Local Family Among Those Killed In Train Wreck_ **

_“…Among the confirmed deceased are Mr. & Mrs. Pevensie and three of their four children, Peter, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie. They are solely survived by their eldest daughter, Susan Pevensie…”_

 

A wave of realization washed over Wendy as she read the article. Without looking she grabbed the draft lying beside her and skimmed over the first page as a soft _no_ escaped her lips. There it was, right in front of her. The story of four siblings exploring a magical land together. Peter, Edmund, Lucy…and “Lily.” But it wasn’t Lily, not really. It was Susan. A story was written by a girl about her and her dead family.

Unsure of what to do with this new information, she picked up the packet and read again.

 

Susan sat down in class on the last peer review day and looked around for some sign of Wendy. There wasn’t much to go over at all, really. She had read through _Neverland_ again the night before and hadn’t been able to find anything problematic. And after reading it that first time, she read it again. It seemed to stir something deep inside her. Not necessarily a pleasant something but not anything awful, either. But it was familiar, as if the words were woven from the magic of Narnia’s golden age. For a brief moment, she had even allowed herself to consider the possibility of another person who had ventured to Narnia, someone else with a story like her, but she killed that fantasy almost as soon as it had begun. The Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve of the prophecy had come and gone and there was no need to bring a new girl into Narnia. Yet, the familiar feeling of magic when she read Wendy’s story was no less.

 

“Susan? Susan?”

 She looked up, startled, “Um, sorry Professor.”

“It appears that Ms. Darling will not be joining us in class today and, as we are doing peer reviews, you are free to go. Please arrange to meet with your partner at another time.”

“Oh, uh, thank you!”

Susan gathered up her things and returned to her apartment early. As the afternoon dragged on, she realized she was distracted by Wendy’s absence. She was probably just sick or tired or something, but still…she didn’t seem like the kind to miss class. Plus, she wanted to give her the final comments on Neverland, and get the final comments on her story. Two days passed and Susan heard nothing from her review partner.  Text messages, emails, and even phone calls had gone unanswered.  Susan’s worry for her grade turned to worry for her classmate, despite barely knowing her.  She needed to do something.  Flipping through her papers she found where she had written down Wendy’s address. It was time to make a house call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but oh well. Thank you for reading this far, and more to come soonish!

**Author's Note:**

> Annnndddd we're back!! Only took a year to start re-working and it's still in progress. TBH the story for this first chapter is mostly the same, and then the changes from the first version really begin. I hope y'all like it, and thank you for reading.


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